


partnership

by pylades



Category: Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: F/M, spy AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-12
Updated: 2015-06-12
Packaged: 2018-04-04 03:10:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 830
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4123575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pylades/pseuds/pylades
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>they're doomed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	partnership

It takes three hours, but he’s got the small apartment that they’ll be using as their headquarters completely wired and ready to go. It took no time at all to hack into the company’s security feed - clearly their IT department was staffed by grade school students. If this first task was any indication of the rest of the mission, they’d be in and out in three hours max and not the three days the Agency expects.

He catches a glimpse of Katherine (sorry ... Agent Plumber) in the reflection created by monitor-and-glasses and she’s got an armory spread out on the small coffee table. She’s taking apart a gun (they can make him go to the range for testing, but he’s not wasting valuable brain matter memorizing handgun models, so deal with it Agent Snotty Spy) quickly and carefully, her slim fingers moving over the parts.

Jack lets the facial recognition software work its magic on the videos that he’s hijacked and grabs a screwdriver from his gear, heading toward the apartment’s sole window (and its air conditioner).

“What’s wrong, Kelly?” Katherine’s voice holds a note of mocking as he begins unscrewing the machine’s panel. “Too hot for you?” The apartment is pushing 80 degrees and, damnit, he IS hot, but so is she. He knows because she exchanged her stuffy suit for casual gear and yanked her long hair into a ponytail after helping him load in. And he can’t help but think that the switch was a good one for her - the black tailored suit made her look ten years older and uptight as hell. She looked almost human in the jeans and tee-shirt with - whaddayacallem - tendrils of hair curling around her face. 

(Not that he was focused on her face or the way she caught her lower lip between her teeth when she focused hard on her task.)

(Jesus, Jack.)

“No, Agent Badass, but it is too hot for my equipment.” He can hold his own in the mocking department - even likes it a little. Before this assignment, he’d been paired with a by-the-books, fresh-from-Uptight-Agent-Academy douchebag who disliked talking. Or breathing. He could get used to this banter. Jack frowns at the unit’s exposed wires and sets to work. “You ever wonder why IT is like a freezer?”

“I try not to wonder about IT at all,” Katherine replied. “But do enlighten me.”

“I sense your sarcasm and I appreciate it.” he told her. “It’s actually pretty endearing in your type.”

She gave him a look that was half-annoyed, half-intrigued. “And what’s my type, Specialist Kelly?”

He smirked. “Me.”

Katherine rolled her eyes and turned back to her arsenal. “Just fix the air conditioner already.”

____________________________________________________________

When the first blast of icy air spits out of the ancient unit, Katherine almost sighs with relief. The apartment was sticky hot and she’d already sweated through her favorite suit helping Jack (sorry ... Specialist Kelly) lug his gear up the stairs and into their apartment.

That is, their headquarters. It wasn’t their apartment and they certainly weren’t cohabitating.

They’d probably kill each other with snark if they lived together. No, this was a mission. They’d get in, do their job, and probably never see each other again. It was a big agency, after all, and she’d be back with her usual tech in no time. Honeymoons didn’t last forever. David had to come back SOMETIME.

It wasn’t that there was anything wrong with Kelly. He seemed intelligent enough (obviously, or he wouldn’t have moved his way up the ranks to Technical Specialist) and he had fixed the air conditioner, but Katherine missed her previous partner. She worked well with David Jacobs. Their personalities suited each other - quiet and thoughtful. David didn’t fill her comm with unnecessary chatter, as she imagined Kelly probably would. She couldn’t help but notice that the man suffered from the worst kind of verbal diarrhea.

He and David couldn’t be more different in appearance, either, not that she was focused on that. David was tall and lanky, an impeccable dresser no matter what the mission. Kelly, on the other hand, wasn’t much taller than Katherine and his casual khaki shorts and tee-shirt didn’t disguise a surprisingly muscular form. Well, maybe it wasn’t that surprising. After all, that computer equipment was heavy. 

“I’m gonna start some coffee, Plumber. How do you like it?”

The sound of his voice snapped her from her thoughts and it was only thanks to years of training that Katherine schooled her face into a blank expression.

“Black -- thank you.”

“Gotcha. Just don’t get used to it,” he teased. “I expect this partnership to be fifty/fifty, yanno.”

As he headed into the kitchen, Katherine sighed, filled with the overwhelming desire to bang her head against the coffee table. 

“Focus, Plumber, the mission.”

Not a partnership, no cohabitating, just a quick mission. She needed to let his plain-spoken, cocky flirtations roll off her back.

(He did look good in those shorts, though.)

(Damnit, Katherine.)


End file.
